Moving to Microsoft Visual Basic .NET

Moving to Microsoft ® Visual Basic ® .NET Patrick McGowen Developer Evangelist Microsoft ® Corporation

What we will cover

Microsoft ® Visual Basic ® .NET

Windows Forms

Upgrading from Visual Basic 6

Session Prerequisites

Experience with Visual Basic

Experience building Microsoft ® Windows ® applications

Level 200

Why Do This Presentation?

.NET changes everything

Upgrading is an involved process

Demonstrations

Overview of Key Visual Basic .NET Changes

Using the Upgrade Wizard

Demonstrations

Overview of Key Visual Basic .NET Changes

Implementing Drag-and-Drop Operations

Using the Upgrade Wizard

Agenda

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET

Developing Windows Applications

Upgrade Considerations

Upgrade Wizard

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET Not just Visual Basic 6 + 1

Designed for the .NET Framework

Common Language Runtime (mscoree.dll)

Base Class Library (mscorlib.dll + others)

Syntax modernized and cleaned up

New IDE

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET CLR: Key features

Cross-language interoperability

Shared types (Common Type System)

Replaces COM runtime layers

Uses garbage collection

Supports multithreading

Built-in security

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET Updated language: New features

Fully object-oriented

Implementation inheritance (“IsA”, “HasA”)

Improved interface inheritance

Overriding and Overloading

Parameterized constructers

SEH ( Try…Catch…Finally…End Try )

Shortcuts

Dim cnSql As New SqlConnection(strConn)

Private i,x,y As Int32

i+=1 , strName&=“Bob” , etc.

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET Updated language: Key changes

MessageBox.Show(“Hello World”)

ByRef or ByVal required

Event handlers use a Handles clause

Handles Button1.Click, Button2.Click

Event handlers have same signature

(sender As Object, e As xxx EventArgs)

Arrays must have 0-bound lower dimension

Property…End Property

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET Updated language: Cleaned up

Handled by the Upgrade Wizard, but don’t use

DefInt , DefStr , DefObj , DefDbl , DefLng

DefBool , DefCur , DefSng , DefDec , DefByte

Imp, Eqv

Handled, but use very sparingly

GoTo [Line no.]

Not handled by the Upgrade Wizard, so remove

GoSub…Return

LSet (for user-defined types)

VarPtr , ObjPtr , StrPtr

Null and Empty nonzero-lower-bound arrays

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET Updated language: Data type changes

Currency replaced by Decimal data type

Long or Int64 64-bit Integer or Int32 Long 32-bit Short or Int16 Integer 16-bit Byte Byte 8-bit Visual Basic .NET Visual Basic 6.0 Integer Type

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET New IDE: Microsoft ® Visual Studio ® .NET

All languages share Devenv.exe

Includes Web development

Server Explorer

Dynamic Help

Greatly enhanced…

Task List ( ‘TODO: Use DataSet instead. )

IntelliSense

ToolBox

Debugger

Bottom Line: It’s still Visual Basic

Only executes within the CLR

RAD for both Windows and the Web

< 100% Backward compatibility

Visual Basic no longer unified with VBA

Ceases its focus as a COM “glue language”

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET Final Comments

Demonstration 1 Key Visual Basic .NET Changes Form Layout Structured Exception Handling Inheritance

Agenda

Upgrade Wizard

Developing Windows Apps The New World of Windows Forms

Windows Forms as .NET classes

Dim frm As New Form1

frm.Show() ‘Or frm.ShowDialog()

Better Graphics with GDI+

Sweeping changes to:

Visual Studio .NET

Controls and Events

Internationalization

Developing Windows Apps New RAD features in Visual Studio .NET

Property changes reflected directly in the code

Non-UI controls placed in separate tray

Visual inheritance

In-place menu editing

Visual tab order editing

Anchor, Dock, AutoScroll, Locked properties

Resize multiple controls

Developing Windows Apps Some new or greatly improved controls

LinkLabel, NotifyIcon

MainMenu, ContextMenu

Provider controls

ToolTip

ErrorProvider

HelpProvider

ToolBar

Splitter

Developing Windows Apps Retired or Replaced Controls

Spinner

Line and Shape

DirListBox, FileListBox, DriveListBox

CommonDialog

Image

Frame

Developing Windows Apps Changes to Mouse Events

New mouse events:

MouseEnter, MouseHover, MouseLeave

MouseWheel

MouseEventArgs object:

Button

X, Y

Clicks

Delta

Controls also provide access

Developing Windows Apps Working with Drag-and-Drop

Between controls same as between applications

Concepts are similar to Visual Basic 6

No support for automatic drag-and-drop

AllowDrop = True

All but DragLeave receive DragEventArgs:

AllowedEffect

Data

Effect

KeyState

X, Y

Developing Windows Apps Implementing Drag-and-Drop DoDragDrop() MouseDown DragEnter DragDrop e.Effect e.Data.GetData() Target Control Source Control DragDropResult

Demonstration 2 Drag-and-Drop Between TextBox Controls Between TreeView Controls Between PictureBox Controls

Agenda

Upgrade Wizard

Upgrade Considerations Upgrade options

Don’t upgrade

Partial upgrade, use COM interop

Complete upgrade

Upgrade Considerations Evaluating the Benefits

Truly add value?

Top 3 reasons to upgrade

Increase performance and scalability

Take advantage of the .NET Framework

New language features and architecture

Upgrade Considerations Evaluating the cost

Can I use the Upgrade Wizard?

Size and Complexity

Code quality

Upgrade Considerations Evaluating the cost (ctd)

Non-upgradeable technologies

Leave; can work with .NET WebClasses Leave; can work with .NET UserControls Leave Property pages Leave and use COM interop ActiveX ________ Leave; can work with .NET DHTML Applications Upgrade to VB 6 or VB .NET Visual Basic 5 controls Leave OLE Container Control Leave or use alternate inter- application communication Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) Update to ADO or ADO .NET DAO and RDO data binding Leave or rewrite in GDI+ Visual Basic 6 drawing model Recommendation Technology

Prepare for the upgrade Suggested Upgrade Plan

Break app into separate projects

Determine dependency hierarchy

Run it through Upgrade Wizard

Determine extent of each upgrade

Prepare, upgrade, fix

Refactor and retest

Agenda

Upgrade Wizard

Using the Upgrade Wizard No Side-by-Side Issues

IDEs can be installed on same machine

Separate directories

Install order is irrelevant

Doesn’t affect Microsoft ® ActiveX ®

Can run Visual Basic 6 while upgrading

Using the Upgrade Wizard Wizard Philosophy

It’s your code

Should be recognizable

Comments preserved

Make it viable

Enough to get it to run

Closest match

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Compatibility.Visual Basic6

Using the Upgrade Wizard Wizard Methodology

Using the Upgrade Wizard Wizard Methodology - NOTES

Using the Upgrade Wizard _UpgradeReport.htm

Using the Upgrade Wizard EWI Comments

Appear In

Upgrade Report

Code

Types

UPGRADE_ISSUE

UPGRADE_TODO

UPGRADE_WARNING

Design Issues

UPGRADE_NOTE

Global Warnings

Using the Upgrade Wizard EWI Comments - NOTES

Appear In

Upgrade Report

Code

Types

UPGRADE_ISSUE

UPGRADE_TODO

UPGRADE_WARNING

Design Issues

UPGRADE_NOTE

Global Warnings

Using the Upgrade Wizard Upgrade Issue Help Files

Using the Upgrade Wizard Errors not caught

Dim x As New y

Some type conversions

Passing properties ByRef

Dim x() ReDim x(5,5)

Some ActiveX control behaviors

Demonstration 2 Using the Upgrade Wizard View the Project in the Visual Basic 6 IDE Upgrade the Project Fix build errors Run the Upgraded App

Session Summary

Visual Basic .NET is not just Visual Basic 6 + 1

Use the Upgrade Wizard to Assess Cost

Not “all or nothing”

For More Information…

Preparing Your Visual Basic 6.0 Applications for the Upgrade to Visual Basic .NET

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnvb600/html/vb6tovbdotnet.asp

Visual Basic .NET: New Programming Model and Language Enhancements Boost Development Power

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/01/02/vbnet/vbnet.asp

Visual Basic Language Changes

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/techinfo/articles/upgrade/transition/language.asp

Specific articles on the MSDN Web site

For More Information…

Introduction to Visual Basic .NET for Visual Basic Veterans

Upgrading Applications Created in Previous Versions of Visual Basic

Visual Basic 6.0 Upgrading Reference

Expand Visual Studio .NET > Visual Basic and Visual C# > Reference

.NET Framework SDK

MSDN Essential Resources for Developers Training & Events MSDN Webcasts, MSDN Online Seminars, Tech-Ed, PDC, Developer Days Subscription Services Online Information Membership Programs Print Publications Library, OS, Professional, Enterprise, Universal Delivered via CD-ROM, DVD, Web MSDN Online, MSDN Flash, How-To Resources, Download Center MSDN User Groups MSDN Magazine MSDN News

How-To Resources Simple, Step-By-Step Procedures

Embedded Development How-to Resources

General How-to Resources

Integration How-to Resources

JScript .NET How-to Resources

.NET Development How-to Resources

Office Development Resources

Security How-to Resources

Visual Basic ® .NET How-to Resources

Visual C# ™ .NET How-to Resources

Visual Studio ® .NET How-to Resources

Web Development How-to Resources (ASP, IIS, XML)

Web Services How-to Resources

Windows Development How-to Resources

http://msdn.microsoft.com/howto

MSDN Webcasts Interactive, Live Online Event

Interactive, Synchronous, Live Online Event

Discuss the Hottest Topics from Microsoft

Open and Free For The General Public

Takes Place Every Tuesdays

http://www.microsoft.com/usa/webcasts

MSDN Subscriptions THE way to get Visual Studio .NET Visual Studio .NET MSDN Subscriptions NEW

Professional

Tools to build applications and XML Web services for Windows and the Web

MSDN Professional $1199 new $899 renewal/upgrade MSDN Enterprise $2199 new $1599 renewal/upgrade MSDN Universal $2799 new $2299 renewal/upgrade

Enterprise Developer

Enterprise lifecycle tools

Team development support

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Software and data modeling

Enterprise templates

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Visit MSDN Online at msdn.microsoft.com

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MS Press Essential Resources for Developers

Upgrading Microsoft Visual Basic 6 to Microsoft Visual Basic .NET

Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (Core Reference)

Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming in Visual Basic .NET

Introducing Microsoft .NET, Second Edition

Microsoft ADO.NET (Core Reference)

www.microsoft.com/mspress

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Session Credits

Author: Sean Campbell

Producer/Editor: Field Content Team

Reviewers

Field Content Council

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET Updated language: Key changes (ctd)

Single Property declarations:

Dim m_sName As String

Public Property Name() As String

Get

Return m_sName

End Get

Set(ByVal Value As String)

m_sName = Value

End Set

End Property

An Overview of Visual Basic .NET Updated language: Key changes (ctd)

Block-level scoping

Dim IsNum As Boolean = True

If IsNum Then

Dim i As Int32

i = 50

End If

i = 100 ‘ Compiler error here!

File I/O statements only via class libraries

Developing Windows Apps The Form Object Hierarchy Object MarshalByRefObject Component Control ScrollableControl ContainerControl Form YourForm

Developing Windows Apps The Form Object Hierarchy - NOTES Object MarshalByRefObject Component Control ScrollableControl ContainerControl Form YourForm

Developing Windows Apps Visual Basic .NET Controls: Some Changes

Control arrays replaced by controls collections

Dim btnFoo As New Button

pnlBar.Controls.Add(btnFoo)

Properties set in InitializeControl()

Upgrade Considerations Evaluating the cost (ctd)

Other time-consuming upgrade items

Games

Drag-and-Drop

Windows APIs

Form.PrintForm

Upgrade Considerations Decision making process (ctd) Are there benefits to upgrading? Don’t upgrade No Yes Is it worth the effort? No Develop upgrade plan Yes

Prepare for the upgrade Code cleanup suggestions